Intervention

[Ash]

Intervention is one of TV those shows that makes you take a close look at your own life.
No matter how bad things might be going in your life, it probably isn't nearly as bad as the problems these people have.

Some are anorexic.  Others have serious addictions to cocaine, alcohol, heroin etc...
Basically the show examines these people and their addictions and shows how devastating it can be to themselves and their loved ones.
The people featured are told that they are doing a documentary about addiction.  They do not know until the end that it is actually an intervention.
The person is confronted by family members while an addiction specialist moderates the intervention.

Here's a clip of the show featuring Travis Meeks.
You might remember him as the lead singer of the band Days of the New.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNim-92G2Hw

The official website

Have you seen Intervention?
What did you think?

[lester1/2jr]

I watch this sometimes.  There was one a while back with this hot hot stripper who was also an alcoholic and heroin addict or something.  I've never seen such a debased human being.  her room was like a nest and she acted like an animal.  physically assaulting family members.  she thought her intervention was the funniest thing she'd ever seen and as soon as her rehab and jail stint was done she went right back to what she had been doing.  stripping and doing drugs all day.

[Oldskool138]

They should just call the show Exploitation and be done with it.

[_nice_]

I agree that No matter how bad things might be going in your life, it probably isn't nearly as bad as the problems these people have.  :cheers:Interventions are either direct, typically involving a confrontation's meeting with the alcohol or other drug dependent person or indirect, involving work with a co-dependent family to encourage them to be more effective in helping the addicted individual.
-------------------------
_nice_

Looking to perform an intervention on a loved one who is abusing drugs or alcohol? This site can definitely help. <a href="http://www.druginterventions.net">http://www.druginterventions.net</a>

[Jack]

Why would anyone want to watch people being utterly miserable on their TV?  No offense to the people who watch it, I just can not understand the appeal. 

[asimpson2006]

Why would anyone want to watch people being utterly miserable on their TV?  No offense to the people who watch it, I just can not understand the appeal. 

I have to agree with you on that one Jack.  I really don't care for the appeal either of the show.  In my opinion this is one of those shows that should have not been made.  Let me explain.  People who have problems do need help, but I don't think the whole country and anywhere else the show is shown at needs to see someones problem brought out into the light.  I mean would you want everyone in the country who saw the episode to know that you had a drug problem or some other problem.   

[sprite75]

They should just call the show Exploitation and be done with it.

I don't like or watch the show.  I think it's taking people who are very vulnerable, who are very badly in need of help and exploiting them for entertainment value.

[HappyGilmore]

Anyone see the obese man that was like, 800 pounds a few weeks back.  Shame.

It really is exploitative, but I do happen upon it now and then.

[asimpson2006]

Anyone see the obese man that was like, 800 pounds a few weeks back.  Shame.

It really is exploitative, but I do happen upon it now and then.

I told my dad what I though about the show, and he was like "Well sometimes it takes millions of people to find out that you have a problem before you do something about it"  I told him that I wouldn't want millions of people to know that I have a problem ( I don't have any drug or alcohol problems)  and I don't want to go some where and have someone point and say that I was some dude on a TV who likes shooting cocaine.   

[sprite75]

I told my dad what I though about the show, and he was like "Well sometimes it takes millions of people to find out that you have a problem before you do something about it"  I told him that I wouldn't want millions of people to know that I have a problem ( I don't have any drug or alcohol problems)  and I don't want to go some where and have someone point and say that I was some dude on a TV who likes shooting cocaine.   

And how would the dad like it if he went places and people pointed at him and said that he had the kid who likes shooting up cocaine?

[Doggett]

They should just call the show Exploitation and be done with it.

Bang on the money.

[CheezeFlixz]

EDITED BY ANDREW
This was a spam posting.  Poster banned, spam removed.  I don't want them to get any SEO out of their attempts.

OK and ....

There is also a new study that shows Cystic Fibrosis (CF) has squat to do with this thread. Just so you know ...


Anywho ... this show falls under the label REALITY TV and I can't stand REALITY TV ... don't care about there problems, we've all got problems don't see everyone doing a show about it. I'd guess the stigma of being outed as a major doper on national TV would have far greater and longer lasting psychological effects than any drug.

Tune in next week as CheezeFlixz realizes he doesn't have exact change at the check out.

[ghouck]

Personally, I like the show, but find it hard to watch at times because I start to HATE some of the people, especially the enabler types. I don't see how it can be considered exploitation, because they're trying to FIX the person in the end. AFTER the intervention, they show MUCH more about the people that succeed than they do of the ones that fail. To me, it gives a massive glimpse into the causes and what pushes people in that direction. I see TONS of failures of the people around the subject, and often when they are kids. I saw one where Mom was dying and was out of state in a hospital, and dad was there to take care of her They left an 11 year old boy 100% in charge of his younger sisters and the entire house for a few YEARS. They told him "You have to be a grown-up, you have to be an adult and take care of your sisters", then they were surprised when the kid's life went awry. An 11 year old, taking on the responsibilities of TWO adults, with no parents around, and the fear of one dying at any time. They wouldn't say what the mom was sick with but she seemed in good health, I question the integrity of the parents.
The point is that there are TONS of things that point people in that direction, much of it when they are children, this show is meant to help people understand that and what those things are. The whole "they made a conscious decision" thing is not even remotely founded in reality.

I'd guess the stigma of being outed as a major doper on national TV would have far greater and longer lasting psychological effects than any drug.

They don't blindside these people, , they KNOW  they are going to be part of a television show regarding their addiction. It's not like they think they won the lottery and are being interview because of it and have the addiction angle sprung on them on live TV. Nobody gets 'outed'. .

[Zapranoth]

You cannot by any means convince me that it's a good and right thing to take a human being (however reduced by addiction, a human nonetheless, no less a person than you or me) before a national TV audience, during his addiction.

If you filmed the entire show during the addiction, kept it put away, and then when a person was completely recovered and he then (in his right mind, and with full faculties) said it was okay to air it, that is a different story.

These people are not in a position to deliver acceptable informed consent, so to speak, for this kind of thing.  There's not likely anything therapeutic to it.   It's sordid.

I don't deny someone's right to watch sordid things.  I myself am not above watching sordid things sometimes.  But have the intellectual honesty to call it what it is.

[ghouck]

They are given the chance to retract it after they are sober, they don't show it without a persons SOBER consent. Your being mis-informed does not constitute intelectual dishonesty on my part.